FY Immersion to Baroda: An insightful learning experience

First Year students’ immersion to Baroda was a right mix of fun and insightful learning. The group visited Bodhi – a studio established by Ms. Mala and Mr. Pradeep Sinha a couple who are NID alumni from the batch of 77. They offered our students an amazing walk-through where students got to see the hand block printing and screen printing on sarees and the process of dying, painting, printing. Ms Mala shared her experiences with developing the culture and skill of their team, process, and journey. Students also learnt how the toxic sewage is processed and recycled through bio remediation.

The students soaked in to the art, history, culture and architecture of the city during their visit to the Lakulish temple at Kayavarohan, Dabhoi fort and Lakshmi Vilas Palace. It was fascinating to catch a glimpse of the paintings of Raja Ravi Verma and copies of Roman and Japanese sculpture and assorted ceramics at Maharaja Fatehsingh Museum. Students also visited mosques, a helical step well and many other sites in Champaner – a 15th century fortified city dotted with excellent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture.

The immersion gave students an opportunity to meet with the professors and students of the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda. They visited the department of printmaking – one of the finest facilities in India, the art history archives – the oldest of repositories of images of art and architecture of Western India, a feature unique to the faculty, the sculpture, ceramics and painting department where they saw the studios in action, and the applied arts department.